


Old Habits Die Hard

by bonesofether



Series: MercyKill Week 2018 [1]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: F/M, mercykill - Freeform, otp
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-29
Updated: 2018-10-29
Packaged: 2019-08-09 11:29:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,642
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16449098
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bonesofether/pseuds/bonesofether
Summary: During a skirmish between Talon and former Overwatch operatives, both Reaper and Mercy find out that old feelings still remain.





	Old Habits Die Hard

**Author's Note:**

> My contribution for the first prompt of a MercyKill Week Prompt List.  
> The theme was freestyle.

The cacophony of gunfire was deafening, and a more morbid part of Mercy wished that she had gotten used to it by now. But it still made her ears ring and the smell of scorched materials and gunsmoke never seemed to fade. Fortunately, it didn’t slow her pace as she darted forward to catch up with the small pocket of civilians she and the other soldiers had been dispatched to rescue.

As she drew nearer, Mercy could hear the panicked cries and pleas for help. They weren’t hostages of Talon, but rather collateral damage. And as much as Mercy hated using military terminology to describe living beings, that is how they were being described.

“I’ve got a visual on the victims!” came a shout over their team comm. “Eleven ‘o'clock and-oh, christ! It’s Reaper! It’s Reaper!”

The soldier’s panicked cries were drown out by a rattling of assault rifle fire followed by the cracking blasts of dual shotguns.

Reaper.

What Gabriel Reyes had become.

Mercy felt a bitter twinge of regret and longing in her heart. Nonetheless, she steeled herself over and sprinted towards the direction of the civilians. She had long since promised to not let her own, personal past interfere with her work.

It hadn’t been easy.

Of course, there had been times that were harder than others. The late nights where her research wore her down and she would wistfully remember being able to relax, if even for a moment, with the Blackwatch leader. Those were the times that drove at her heart with a particular edge.

And then there were times like now, where it seemed like the whole world around her was erupting. It was much easier to push the memories aside when lives were hanging in the balance. The memories and the...fear. Mercy wasn’t afraid of Reaper, no. She knew not to underestimate him, nor to expect any kind of leniency, but her fear came from the terrible truth that she didn’t know if she was truly ready to come to accept who, or what, Gabriel had become.

Seeing one of the civilians snapped Mercy out of her thoughts and she focused on the task at hand. She could reminisce later that night. The cold, droning hum of her computer and its dull glow were hardly comforting, but at least they didn’t judge her for holding onto such memories.

 

A flash of gold in his peripheral vision snagged Reaper’s attention and he turned to its source. It wasn’t like he needed the visual confirmation. He knew good and well who the glow belonged to. There was only one woman in the world that it could.

Nonetheless, the sight of Mercy flitting around the rubble and quickly working with two other soldiers brought a smirk to Reaper’s concealed, marred features. The surprise he felt at seeing Mercy was minimal, at best. Her tenacity and devotion to her work had been very near without equal.

For the briefest of moments, Reaper allowed himself to remember all the times that Mercy-no, Angela had fussed over him for not taking better care of himself. How many times had she shown up at his doorstep with a meal, vitamins, and the patience of a saint? How many times had Gabriel, despite his grumbling, been quietly grateful for the pretty medic’s visit? ...and how many times had he found himself missing those nights?

Snarling at the last thought, Reaper kicked aside the body of the latest idiot to get in his way before making his way to a shaded outcropping. It would provide a better line of sight and allow him to come up behind Mercy and the two soldiers. Normally he wouldn’t go out of his way to get civilians killed, but Mercy was a high priority target. There was no reason for Reaper to pass up this opportunity.

Bullet casings and debris crunching under his boots, Reaper took in a short breath before Shadow Stepping behind his unfortunate targets. They had worked quickly, it seemed. There were only a few civilians left, and they were more concerned with getting out of their almost-grave than anything else. At least, all of them save for a young girl.

The moment the child caught sight of Reaper, she let out a terrified, shrill scream and pointed at the black-robed man. Immediately, the soldiers and Mercy pivoted to see Reaper slinking up towards them. He managed to get off a single, killing shot to the soldier to his left, but the second immediately opened fire and forced Reaper to seemingly dissipate and take cover behind a collapsed wall.

He could hear the soldier shouting at Mercy, ordering her to get the civilians to safety. And, of course, Mercy refused to leave the soldier by themselves. There was that tenacity again.

 

“Just go!” the soldier yelled, already backing up from where Reaper had been.

“I’m not going to leave you!” Mercy countered, glancing over her shoulder.

The remaining civilians had managed to scramble to the waiting safety of an evac vehicle. There was one left, but it was for the remaining soldiers. Mercy included. She could see the driver frantically trying to wave her and the soldier over as another explosion rocked the structure. Chunks of the ceiling rained down, and a massive metal beam slammed down in the middle of the hallway with a thunderous, metallic clang.

The only sound louder in Mercy’s ears was the pained yelp from the soldier. As soon as she was able, she turned to see their left leg pinned under a piece of wall. Darting over, Mercy jammed one end of her staff between the piece of painted concrete and the floor. Using the metal staff as a lever, she began trying to lift the rock piece.

“Just-just leave me,” the soldier cried, though the panic in his words said something else to Mercy. “He’s-he’ll come back. He’ll kill us both!”

“Just shut up and be ready to move your leg!” Mercy replied, straining to lift the massive piece of debris. Despite her best efforts, it was only barely budging. If she could just...manage a...little more…

As if to make matters worse, Reaper materialized and strode back into view. For a brief moment, Mercy froze. She didn’t know what to do. She couldn’t run. First and foremost, she wasn’t going to leave this soldier. Harris. Soldier Harris. She wasn’t going to leave him. Secondly, it wouldn’t matter if she ran. Reaper could just as easily shoot her in the back and be done with it.

Snapping out of her brief daze, Mercy redoubled her efforts to free Harris. The heels of her boots scraped across the floor, and she could feel the staff groaning in protest. Worst of all, she could hear Reaper getting closer. His mere presence seemed to chill the air and the diabolical chuckle that followed was nothing short of unnerving. ...but Mercy wasn’t going to abandon Harris.

Finally, though almost too late, the chunk of the ceiling shifted suddenly. Harris backpedaled frantically, fighting to get to his feet and unholstering his sidearm as he did so. Though he moved with a noticeable limp, the soldier still managed to move quickly. He grabbed Mercy’s arm and began pulling her away from Reaper, firing off a few shots to try and keep the threat at bay.

Even though they were pretty much blind shots, and that Reaper would do much worse if he caught them, Mercy couldn’t help but wince when she heard two of the shots make contact. A part of her wanted to tell Harris to stop. And one of her hands reflexively lifted and moved as though to try and grab the pistol. All it took, though, was an incredulous look from the soldier to make Mercy recoil. She mentally kicked herself for the action. She’d let her personal feelings get in the way.

She didn’t have much time to dwell on the seeming mistake. Just as Harris demanded to know what Mercy was thinking, another explosion ripped through the structure. This one, however, was on the ground floor and right on the level that Mercy and Harris were on.

One moment Mercy was standing beside Harris, and the next she was airborne. The concussive wave of the explosion swept her off her feet with frightening ease and slung her into the air. Rocks, splinters, and various debris engulfed her before she was tossed out of a half-shattered window. Mercy could faintly hear Harris call out to her as she began the inevitable plummet downwards.

 

The fiery sting of the bullet had been a temporary setback, at the most, as Reaper grimly reminded himself that the wound would heal soon enough. He also made a note to return the ‘favor’. With interest. As he was taking aim at the retreating soldier and medic, Reaper felt the briefest of hesitations grip his hand. He could take the shot and definitely kill the soldier, but...Angela was too close.

He didn’t have much time to think on the matter.

Another of the bombs Talon had set went off, tearing through the ground floor. Realizing he was in its path, Reaper backed up quickly. One soldier, even if they were a particularly obnoxious one, wasn’t worth getting hit by the bomb’s blast. If anything, Reaper could find them later and personally see to it that they learned why shooting someone was rather rude.

His quarry, however, wasn’t so lucky.

Whatever satisfaction Reaper may have had at the sight of the soldier being thrown back like a ragdoll was immediately lost when he saw Mercy get flung out of a large, broken window. Unexpected panic snagged in Reaper’s chest and he reflexively lunged forward. Reactivating his more wraith-like form, he followed her down until…

Rematerializing in midair, Reaper grabbed Mercy’s arm, pulled her up, and then wrapped an arm around her waist to hold onto her. With his other hand, he dug his metal claws into the outside wall of the building in an attempt to slow their descent.. The entire way, he was cursing the architect that had thought it’d be good idea to build a multi-story structure right along a cliffside. There was a smaller structure, a parking garage, beneath them. But it was a long ways down.

Gritting his teeth at the sudden force that felt as though it was threatening to tear his fingers off, Reaper clung tightly to Mercy. Judging by the way she limply hung in his hold, she was either unconscious or...

Dismissing the thought, Reaper forced himself to focus on the more important matter at hand. The one that involved keeping them both from smashing into the rocky ground below them. He tried to grab traction with his boots, and succeeded in slowing their fall. It was just enough that he could grab onto a decorative ledge of the building. Reaper winced behind his mask at the feel of his near mutilated fingers grasping at the rock, but it couldn’t be helped. The alternative was much worse.

“...Gabriel?”

Mercy’s voice provided a temporary distraction, and Reaper turned his attention to her. The medic’s pale skin was coated in dust and had a thin rivulet of blood dribbling down from a cut along her forehead. But she was conscious and appeared to be relatively okay.

Though he would never admit it, Reaper couldn’t deny the small wave of relief he felt when he realized that.

“You mind actually holding on, Doc?” Reaper asked, his voice strained as he struggled to keep his grip on the ledge.

Blinking, Mercy looked down...and seemed to abruptly realize where they were. She threw her arms around Reaper’s neck and tightly held on. Fortunately, she also had the mind enough to not struggle. So, as soon as he could, Reaper grabbed the ledge with his newly freed hand.

“Well, that’s better,” he chuckled dryly. Reaper glanced down at the ground far below them. “For the moment, at least.”

“Why did you do that?”

Mercy’s question, whispered against his neck, made Reaper pause.

Why _had_ he?

It wasn’t as though Talon would really care if they didn’t manage to capture one medic. Even if it was the legendary Dr. Ziegler. And Reaper certainly hadn’t gone through all this for his health. He was now sporting one badly mangled hand, various cuts and bruises that, despite being able to heal, would be notably sore. To add insult to injury, the one soldier that he would have liked to have killed most likely managed to get away.

So why had he leapt for Mercy with nary a second thought?

“Gabriel?”

Realizing that he had been silent the entire time, Reaper looked back to Mercy. It was there that he saw the reason. It was in those soft, inquisitive blue eyes with the glint of a devotion that Reaper had never fully understood. It was in the fact that Mercy’s expression was more concerned than fear or revulsion. It was in the fact that her first reaction had been to cling to him. And it was in the fact that, though Mercy may not have known, Reaper didn’t miss the fact that she had moved to try and stop Harris from shooting him.

Now, though, after everything that had happened, Reaper bitterly doubted any of that mattered. Everything that made up the reason he had followed after Mercy had been lost years ago. So, he settled for a more neutral reply…

“Old habits die hard,” he grumbled.

“I don’t recall us making a habit of jumping out of windows together,” Mercy replied with a smirk.

“That’s because you had more common sense back then.”

Not bothering to stifle the chuckle at Mercy’s obviously unamused expression, Reaper turned his attention back to his grip on the building ledge. They certainly couldn’t hang there forever. His grip would eventually give out and then… Well, it was a long ways down.

“Think you can climb around onto my back?” Reaper asked.

“I… Yes.” Mercy frowned and looked down at the ground before back up to Reaper. “What are you planning to do?”

“Pretty sure I can manage to climb over to a spot where the ground isn’t a death fall beneath us.” Reaper paused, then smirked. “Unless you finally managed to make those wings of yours useful.”

Again, the unamused expression returned to Mercy’s expression and she wordlessly clambered around so that she was on Reaper’s back. Despite his comment, Mercy at least had the decency to be careful where the heels of her boots landed. She also kept her actions as careful and as light as she could manage.

“Never understood why you didn’t work on making those wings fully functional,” Reaper commented.

With a short grunt of effort, he began carefully climbing across the ledge. He could see a place where the ground was close enough that they might manage another, very careful, climb down. And even if they fell, the result wouldn’t be a very messy and gruesome demise.

“I had more important things to research,” Mercy replied curtly.

“Really? Any of those important matters coming to mind now, Angela? I’m curious to hear what they are.” Though Reaper wasn’t one for small talk, the conversation kept his mind off his aching hand as it struggled to heal. That and it was still painfully easy for him to simply talk to Angela.

“...not really,” Mercy muttered, burying her face against the back of Reaper’s hood. After a moment, she sighed and looked over her shoulder. Though her wings were still intact, the only power that they were currently getting was the occasional electrical spark. “It doesn’t matter, anyways. The blast made them pretty much useless.”

“So no change from before, then?”

“Gabriel Reyes…!”

Despite everything, all Reaper could do was chuckle at Mercy’s indignant tone.


End file.
